while the cat's away
by Girl in a White Dress
Summary: A collection of drabbles, completely unrelated to each other.
1. perfection

_It seemed silly to keep posting drabbles by themselves, so I thought I'd post 'em together. Most of them will be in response to challenges posted at pretender100 on LJ. Hope you enjoy._

_Disclaimer: The characters do not belong to me. I'm just playing and will do my best to return them as good as new ;o)_

* * *

Title: Perfection  
A/N: For the pretender100"first meetings" challenge.

One word resonates in your mind: perfect.

You cradle him gently in your arms, half-afraid that this is just a dream. You waited so long and you prayed so hard and now – finally – you have a son.

You can't help yourself: you count his fingers and toes. When he grabs hold of your thumb with his tiny hand, you're surprised at his strength.

A tear escapes, rolling down your cheek. You know you'd die if anything had to happen to him.

Your husband smiles, saying, "What do you think of Jarod?"

Jarod. You like it. "Hi, Jarod. I'm your Mommy."


	2. table for one

Title: Table For One  
A/N:For the "first meetings" challenge.

* * *

You have been to a hundred places like this in your life and you don't expect this one to be any different from the rest. You came here because you were bored, and there's a certain anonymity about the place, even in it's familiarity. 

You don't expect anything special. All you really want is a couple of drinks, a decent meal, and a waitress pretty enough to look at all night.

One out of three so far, you think as a woman approaches your table. "Hello," she says. "My name is May Lin and I'll be your waitress this evening."


	3. hold me, thrill me, kiss me, kill me

Title: Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me  
Summary: You don't know how you got here /You just know you want out /Believing in yourself /Almost as much as you doubt (U2)  
A/N: For the addictions challenge. I've taken a few liberties in my definition of 'addiction', just go with it.  
Erm, (ii.) and (iv.) are not for the squeamish.

* * *

i. Broots_ (hold me)_

If anyone found out, he would die of embarrassment. He glances around furtively to check that no one is looking at him.

So far, so good.

He opens the CD cover, removes the disc, and quickly inserts it into the Discman. He shoves the cover back into his bag and hides the bag under the desk.

He looks around again.

He puts the earphones on and presses 'play'. Almost immediately, he begins to relax. He turns the computer on, ready to start the day. Tapping his foot on the floor, he unconsciously sings along: "Hit me baby, one more time . . ."

* * *

ii. Lyle _(thrill me)_

She stares up at him, her dark eyes defiant. She trembles under his touch, and he sees the first hint of fear flicker across her face.

He smiles.

This one will be different, he thinks. His tongue darts out to moisten his lips in anticipation.

She whimpers. There is only one ending, and both of them know what it is.

He kisses away her tears, even as he draws the blade of his knife over her throat.

His heartbeat quickens; hers slows.

He holds her gaze, watching for the moment of death, and thinks, _It doesn't get better than this._

* * *

iii. Catherine _(kiss me)_

She knows this is wrong and dangerous and there are a thousand reasons not to be here. She's a married woman, she has a child, a whole other life.

Adultery is a mortal sin.

She thinks of the choices she's made so far, the life she's lived, and decides she's going to hell anyway.

His lips are on her, and she forgets. There is nothing outside of here and now: no Centre, no daughter, no husband.

No pain.

Ben makes her happy. That's all she really wants.

He gasps her name. She closes her eyes, losing herself to his touch.

* * *

iv. Parker _(kill me)_

Of all her vices, this is the most destructive. She could be the poster-child for a dysfunctional life, she thinks with a bitter smile.

It's of little comfort that the only one she's hurting is herself.

This is a secret that not even Jarod knows. The thought brings a real smile to her face.

(Tommy once asked about the scars. She lied; said it was a car accident. He didn't ask again.)

She presses the blade into her flesh and watches dispassionately as the blood runs scarlet on her skin.

Nothing.

All she wants is to be able to _feel_.


	4. olaf

Title: Olaf  
Rating: PG-13 for some friskiness ;o)  
A/N: Response to the "dialogue only" challenge.

* * *

"I'm going to kill you."

"No, you're not."

"Am too."

"Are not."

"What, are we in third grade?"

"If that were the case, this would be illegal."

"I'm sure it still is in some states."

"Delaware?"

"Nah, I think we're safe."

"Good to know."

"Jarod?"

"What?"

"Oh, don't look so smug."

"Well, I could stop—"

"No! I mean – Damn it, I'm not going to beg. Stop if you want to."

"I don't."

"Yet you're still talking."

"Okay. This better?"

"Perfect."

"And this?"

"I might just hire you as my full-time masseuse."

"As long as you don't call me Olaf."


	5. late night call

Title: Late Night Call  
Rating: PG  
For the "missing scenes" challenge. Post-ep to "Ghosts From The Past".

* * *

02:48. The phone rings.

"What?"

"Did I wake you?"

"Jarod. Looks like you won another round."

"It's not a game. There were lives at stake."

"There always are." A pause, then, softer, "I'm glad you're okay."

"I'm touched at your concern."

She tenses. "I'm the only one who gets to kill you."

This is where he should hang up. He doesn't. "Were you really worried?"

"No." A lie.

"I got lucky this time." He chuckles. "Don't worry, Miss Parker. I wouldn't dream of letting anyone else kill me."

"Jarod—"

"Goodnight, Parker."

And she realizes she doesn't want him dead.


	6. secrets

Title: Secrets  
Rating: R, for bad language and disturbing content.  
Disclaimer: Not mine.  
Summary: She's not amused.  
A/N: For Sezzie, who wanted Miss Parker/Lyle. You made me do a bad thing :looks for place to hide:

* * *

She storms into your office, her leather coat flapping behind her. Her eyes flash fire and she is unusually pale. Your glance sweeps her from head to toe, and you lick your lips in anticipation. She's beautiful when she's angry. 

"Something I can do for you, Miss Parker?" Your tone carries just the right amount of suggestiveness and nonchalance.

"Did you know?" She drops a folder onto the desk. DNA results.

"Oh. _That_."

She slaps you. "You're my – We – Shit! Fuck!"

"We already did that."

She's not amused.

Your only regret is that you couldn't keep it secret for longer.


	7. as long as it takes

Title: As Long As It Takes  
Rating: PG  
Disclaimer: Not my characters.  
Summary: You already love her.  
A/N: For Amanda, who asked for anything pretender.

* * *

You could love her, you think, if she would let you. She may even be able to love you. You know she cares about you. She even trusts you, to a point.

But she evades your questions about the mail, doesn't discuss her job with you and refuses to tell you her first name.

Still, you have an image in your head of her belly swollen with your child, so you keep fighting. You will win her heart, you decide, even if it takes forever.

And when she smiles at you, you realize there's no _could_. You already love her.


	8. angels

Title: Angels  
Rating: PG  
Disclaimer: Not my characters.  
A/N: For Nancy, who wanted J/MP and Catherine/Mr. Parker

* * *

Her father calls her Angel. Jarod knows she is. She is beautiful, kind, gentle. Everything he thinks angels should be.

And she brings light into his life.

Before, he was content to do the tasks set for him. Now, he wants more.

She makes him dream of a world outside the Centre. A world where he doesn't have to crawl around in the shadows.

Sitting on his narrow cot, Jarod thinks about the kiss she'd given him that afternoon. He knows he'll love her forever.

He decides one day he'll kiss Miss Parker again. One day, in the world outside.

* * *

Catherine sits on the porch swing, rocking gently in the breeze. One hand rests on her swollen belly. She laughs as her children kick.

"Here you go." Her husband passes her a cup of tea. She smiles her hanks and studies her husband.

He should be thrilled, she thinks, and though he says he is, there is a sadness in his eyes that Catherine doesn't understand.

And because she wants so desperately to make this marriage work, she'll pretend that everything's fine. She pats the seat next to her and waits for him to sit.

"So, how was your day?"


	9. patty

Title: Patty  
Rating: PG-13  
A/N: Response to the _missing scenes_ challenge.

* * *

"What's your name?" She is pretty; dark hair, dark eyes, maybe a little too skinny. It's her smile that does it for him, a smile that reminds him of a woman he's seen only once.

He clears his throat. "John."

John Doe. No one. Not Gemini. Not anymore.

Her smile widens. "I'm Patty."

Later that night, he stares up at the stars and wonders if it was like this for Jarod and Miss Parker. Patty's mouth is soft and her hands are gentle. She lets him touch her, and he wonders if it's wrong that he's thinking of someone else.


	10. anna

Title: Anna  
Disclaimer: Not my characters.  
For Nancy.

Anna Campbell was the prettiest girl in Bobby Bowman's class. So he couldn't understand what she saw in him. (It would be years before his self-image improved.)

He walked her home from the movies one night, and she let him kiss her under her dad's oak tree.

When she came to school with a black eye, he went to her house and attacked her father. (Mr. Campbell never hit her again.)

She said she loved him.

Lyle thinks of her often. The Centre doesn't know about her and he wants to keep it that way.

Because he loved her too.


	11. ethan, emily & annie

Disclaimer: Not my characters.  
A/N: For ICD.

* * *

_Ethan_

It has never occurred to him to wonder what his life would be like without the voices' almost constant whispering. It has been part of who he is for as long as he can remember.

For most of his life, he's hated the voices, hated (feared) what they tell him, but lately there's been a new voice. Gentler. Softer. One he wants so very badly to trust. She isn't like the rest, isn't full of hate and anger.

He wants to listen to her, but he is afraid of what might happen if he does.

Because what if she's wrong?

* * *

_Emily_

It's been a long day and her guard is lowered. She's staring out the window, thinking about Jarod. (She's always thinking about Jarod – he's the center of her family's life.) She's feeling PMS-y and melancholy and (not for the first time) wishes she'd been born to different parents.

Almost immediately, she regrets it. This isn't her parents' fault. It's not Jarod's fault either.

But she wants a normal life.

Suddenly, there's a hand on her shoulder. She turns, her brown eyes meeting a pair of cold blue ones.

And then she's being pushed backwards out the window, and she's falling . . .

* * *

_Annie_

Age four: Edna helps her make a Father's Day card. She applies lipstick to her lips, feeling very grown up, and kisses the inside of the card. She knows her Daddy will love it.

Seven: She wakes up at five, excited for her first day of 'big school'. She has new shoes and a new dress, and can hardly wait to begin.

Fifteen: She talks her dad into letting her go on a date, and lets Robert Whitman kiss her when he drops her off afterwards.

Seventeen: Three days before she dies, she tells her father she loves the locket.


	12. unexpected visitors

Disclaimer: Not my characters.  
Rating: All Ages  
For the _unexpected visitors_ challenge.

Catherine's sitting in front of the fireplace, reading a book, when there's a loud knock at the door. She rushes to answer; she's just put her daughter to sleep and doesn't want the noise to wake her.

"Jacob?" She ushers him inside, unable to mask her surprise. "What is it? Did something happen?"

The question is unnecessary; there are dark circles under his eyes, and his expression is haunted.

"Your friend, the one whose child is missing?"

She nods. "Margaret."

"He's at the Centre."

She shakes her head. No.

"Yes. Sydney's looking after him."

Like that, her world falls apart.


	13. ever after

Disclaimer: Not my characters.  
Word count: 100  
A/N: Written for **daygloparker** for **Yuletide 2007**.

* * *

She does not love Jarod.

He does not love her either; he loves the Miss Parker he kissed on a sub-level when he was twelve years old. She is not that girl anymore, though Jarod might still be that boy.

He doesn't realize that theirs is not a fairytale romance in which the prince and princess live happily ever after. She lives in the real world; there are no happy endings in store for either of them.

Her freedom will come at the expense of his. She believes that, and wonders if that makes her as deluded as he is.


	14. happy ending

For hyacinthian and the prompt: Jarod/Miss Parker and happy ending.

* * *

Three a.m. The phone rings.

"I found my mother."

She remembers his desperation on the island, his distress at once again being so close only to lose Margaret. She thinks of her own mother, and how there are memories of bedtime stories and hugs and kisses that Jarod will never have.

It's not often she feels guilty. Jarod seems to have this effect on her.

Margaret knew her mother, she thinks. There are so many questions she could answer.

She hardly dares ask.

Her fingers tighten on the receiver, and when Jarod says he'll meet her, her heart feels light.


	15. LJ

_Standalone drabbles. Originally posted on LJ._

"Don't call me that." He slurs, tripping over the words.

"What?"

"It's Mr. Lyle to you, boy. Will you never learn?"

Eleven-year-old Bobby Bowman crouches on the floor, trying to make himself as small as possible. 'Daddy, I'm sorry,' he wants to say, but holds his tongue. Calling him 'Daddy' is what brought the beating on.

"Who am I?" he demands.

Bobby peers up through his fingers; afraid his father will hit him again. "Mr. - Mr. Lyle."

His father bends down and pats his head. "Good boy."

Bobby decides he hates his father and thinks, one day you'll be sorry.

* * *

Three a.m., and the phone rings. She looks at it for a moment, contemplating whether or not to answer.

(She knows she will; she always does.)

"What?"

"Did I wake you?" Of course it's him; who else would phone her at this time?

"No."

"You should sleep more. It's not healthy to--"

She laughs. "Then maybe you shouldn't phone me in the middle of the night if you're that worried about my sleeping patterns."

"I can't sleep either." A pause. "When can I see you again?"

"Jarod, we can't--"

"We can."

She sighs. "Soon."

"Soon," he echoes. Then, "Good night, Parker."

* * *

_You're such an inspiration for the ways that I will never, ever choose to be._ (A Perfect Circle: Judith)

She studies the photograph of her mother, and it's like looking into a mirror. But there's a softness in Catherine's face that isn't present in hers. Catherine's smile is warm, her eyes kind, her expression gentle. Parker is all angles and hardness. Her smile is a sneer, her eyes cold and her expression mocking.

Parker remembers goodnight kisses and bedtime stories. She remembers laughter and music and hugs. She remembers believing the words _I love you._

Love is what killed Catherine. Love made her weak and careless and stupid.

Parker is a survivor. Love, she tells herself, is something she can live without.

* * *

_Soon, Love Soon/There will be an evolution of the human soul/we will know that to be a part is to be truly whole/we will know the pattern of centuries, rise and fall/we will know that the fate of one, is the fate of all. _(Vienna Teng: Soon Love Soon)

A little boy in a glass cage, and suddenly Parker's a child again and the boy is Jarod and they're smiling at each other through the glass.

"What's wrong?" the boy who is and is not Jarod asks, and Parker shakes her head. She's struck with the sudden realization that nothing has changed, and nothing will ever change, and—

"Parker?"

She's back in the present, and her baby brother – not a baby anymore, she thinks fondly, he's five years old already – smiles at her.

"Let's go for a walk," she says. And they walk out past the guards, to her car, and then they're driving away from the Centre, from Blue Cove, from everything.

The cycle has to stop sometime.

* * *

She knows she's not supposed to be here at night, but she doesn't care. Sitting curled up on the sofa, reading _Little Women_ by candlelight, Miss Parker feels closer to her mother than at any time during the day.

She can't talk about her mother to Daddy, and Jarod hardly remembers his mother so he can't understand.

Since her Mama died, Miss Parker has no one.

Jo and her sisters may not be real, but they feel like friends.

A few weeks later, Daddy sends her to boarding school, and the midnight visits to the library come to an end.

* * *

There is an envelope on her pillow when she arrives home from the Centre. She's not that surprised; it has been almost a month since Jarod has contacted her or led the Centre on a wild goose chase. (If he's contacted Sydney, she has no way of knowing. She tells herself she doesn't care.)

In the envelope is a brochure for a spa in California; a comfortable distance from the Centre, Parker thinks. Accompanying the brochure is a small, handwritten note: _All work and no play . . ._

Parker recalls California's nice this time of year. She smiles, and begins to pack.

* * *

He sits at the window, his finger tracing the paths the raindrops have made on the glass. He's thinking of her again. Only recently has he realized he's always associated her with rain. Tonight, the rain is constant. It's been raining for hours, and will rain for longer yet. It's sad weather. (She's always sad, he thinks, no matter how hard she tries to hide it.)

He likes storms, the unpredictability of them reminding him of her fierce temper, the way she can become angry in just seconds.

And when the storm ends, he sees her smile in the rainbow.

* * *

"Go on," she says. "Pull the trigger then."

There's an emptiness in her eyes that you haven't seen before, and you almost feel sorry for her. Almost.

There's a part of you that feels cheated. You want her to beg for her life. You want her to fight. You want to see the fire you're used to.

"You won't win, William. You can't. They'll beat you."

"Your voices tell you that?"

She smiles, and you know that she's accepted her death. She's not afraid of you, and maybe she never was.

You smile as you pull the trigger. "Goodbye, Catherine."

* * *

A family dinner her father insisted on, then never showed up for. She glances at Lyle across the table and reaches for her glass of wine. She's going to need a lot more wine to make it through tonight, she thinks.

At first she thinks she imagines it; the brush of fabric against her leg. Then it happens again, and she notices the mischievous glint in Lyle's eye. Again, this time followed through with the warmth of his leg against hers.

She narrows her eyes. Lyle smiles. She sips her wine.

Again. The contact lingers, but she doesn't pull away.

* * *

It's a simple tombstone; two words etched in the marble. _Jarod._

Refuge.

She sinks slowly to her knees, unwilling to accept that this is where it ends.

It's a beautiful day. Sunshine, clear skies, birds singing to one another in the trees. Parker sees none of it. She's back on the island, in front of the fireplace. She remembers the last time she saw him; his eyes showing hurt at her betrayal.

I'm sorry, she thinks.

And then, I hope you found your peace.

(From a distance, he watches her leave and his heart breaks all over again.)

* * *

"There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven."

Catherine's fingers trace the words. She imagines her mother reading the same passage and wonders what circumstances prompted it. Certainly nothing as terrifying as what Catherine now faces.

She is afraid. Her life is no longer her own. Her daughter is lost to her, to Jarod too, if They have anything to say about it.

Catherine holds to the scripture's truths. The Centre cannot stand forever. Catherine hopes she'll still be here to see its time end.

Raines enters, and she knows her time is up.


	16. jarod, kyle

_For Nancy who asked for Jarod & Kyle._

Jarod had always thought he would love his family immediately, but it wasn't like that with Kyle. He needed to get to know him first, to understand him. It's a lesson he's glad he has learned; one day when he meets the rest of his family he will know better than to expect things to be perfect from the start.

But still, deep down there's a nagging feeling that maybe things will not work out at all, that his family will be disappointed when he finally finds them, that he will turn out to be less than what they want.


	17. soup

_For Liz who asked for Jarod/Rachel and soup. Profiler crossover._

. . .

No one has ever made him soup before. Not like this, anyway.

What was intended to be a romantic evening with the profiler got off to an awful start when Jarod knocked on her door with reddened eyes and a temperature.

It's nice to be taken care of, he thinks. Tucked into her bed, eating chicken soup, he decides that being sick is perhaps not so bad after all.

"Do you mind if I work?" she asks.

He shakes his head and watches Rachel spread her files over the bedspread.

Yes, he thinks, he could definitely get used to this.


	18. advent drabble

For antiqueskies who asked for Jarod/Parker.

. . .

He may be a genius, but it took him years to realize just how in love with her he was.

In all fairness, he had never experienced that kind of emotion before. All he knew of love was something abstract, an explanation given by Sydney to a confused and lonely teenager. He looked for love with Nia and Zoe and couldn't understand what was missing.

With Parker, he always feels complete, whether they're arguing or teasing or even just talking. With her he feels whole.

He can't imagine not having her in his life.

And knows she loves him too.


End file.
